To move a block of text, you drag the cursor from the beginning of the region to the end of the region and cut the text with Edit –> Cut (or type C-w). Now you move the cursor to the place where you want and paste with C-y.
To copy or duplicate a region of text is similar except instead of cut we copy with Edit –> Copy (or type M-w). Move a whole story from one part of the file to another. Copy or duplicate a saying or two. The cut operation can be used to delete a region as well. Remove from the file any stories you don't like! Here is a summary of the killing and deleting operations to practice on the stories file.
Table 6.2. Killing and deleting
| DEL | Delete character to left |
| M-DEL | Kill word to left |
| C-k | Kill from cursor to end of line |
| C-SPACE | Mark start of region |
| C-w | Cut region (Kill region) |
| M-w | Copy region |
| C-y | Paste region (Yank back last thing killed) |
| M-y | Yank back thing before last thing killed (do after a C-y). Repeat to retrieve older text killed. |
Notice the distinction between ‘deleted’ and killed.’ Deleted text can not be ‘yanked’ back or retrieved while killed text can.